1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer systems and, in particular, to a method of adding critical hardware resource capacity to a networked system of computers.
2. Description of Related Art
As described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,335, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, a generalized client-server computing network has a plurality of servers and which are interconnected, either directly to each other or indirectly through one of the other servers. Each server is essentially a stand-alone computer system (having one or more processors, memory devices, and communications devices), but has been adapted (programmed) for the primary purpose of providing information to individual users at a plurality of workstation clients in communication with each server. A client is a member of a class or group of computers or computer systems that uses the services of another class or group to which it is not related. As used herein, “client” generally refers to any multi-purpose or limited-purpose computer adapted for use by a single individual, regardless of the manufacturer, hardware platform, operating system, and the like. The information provided by a server can be in the form of programs which run locally on a given client, or in the form of data such as files used by other programs.
Such networks may communicate via the Internet using conventional protocols and services which allow the transfer of various types of information, including electronic mail, simple file transfers via FTP, remote computing via TELNET, gopher searching, Usenet newsgroups, and hypertext file delivery and multimedia streaming via the World Wide Web (WWW). A given server can be dedicated to performing one of these operations, or running multiple services. The '335 patent discloses the monitoring of server performance in a network like the Internet, and generating reports detailing performance statistics (daily, weekly, or monthly) for various server resources. Statistical parameters may include for example the number of observations; CPU utilization; system usage percentage; user usage percentage; percentage of time I/O wait is greater than some pre-selected level; run queue length; active virtual memory (AVM); free space (FRE); percentage of time CPU utilization is greater than some pre-selected level; percentage of time run queue is greater than some pre-selected level; percentage of time storage usage is greater than some preselected level and percentage of time paging rate is greater than some number of pages per second. Links may be provided to view additional, detailed information regarding, for example, a specific resource on a particular server. Notwithstanding the advantages of the invention of the '335 patent, there is no method or system which may act on the performance information generated on the client-server computer network to improve the performance and reliability of the network.